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Kybella: The Double Chin Drug

It’s hard to find a fan of the double chin. That’s why anyone who would introduce a double chin drug—designed to eliminate excess fat around the jawline—would instantly become quite popular. It turns out that something quite like that has already happened, and the double chin drug is called Kybella.

It might sound a little far fetched that one simple drug could help you eliminate your double chin. To be sure, Kybella isn’t like a pill that you take. Kybella is an injection. And the results aren’t instant. They take time to develop. But Kybella is incredibly effective at eliminating fat around the double chin area. And that’s good because that type of fat is tough to get rid of naturally.

You can try all the diet and exercise you want, but that double chin fat is stubborn. So how does Kybella work, and why is it so effective? Let’s take a look—because Kybella (if we’re lucky) may only be the first step in a series of injectables aimed at eliminating fat.

The Dreaded Double Chin

There’s a medical term for the double chin: excess submental fat. And people can develop this excess submental fat for a wide variety of reasons, including the following:

Lifestyle choices: sometimes diet and exercise decisions can be a factor in whether one develops a double chin or not

Genetics: Often, the most important factor in the development of submental fat is genetics. Some people are simply predisposed to develop submental fat.

Age: One of the reasons that submental fat (or the double chin) can develop in the first place is because of the way that fat around the jawline interacts with gravity.

In most cases, the double chin develops because of a combination of these causes. However, once a double chin does develop, it can be incredibly difficult to get rid of. Often, the fat around the jawline won’t respond to diet and exercise. Once it’s there, it’s there, even if the rest of your body is in tip top shape.

Previously, liposuction was used to resolve excess fat around the double chin. This would eliminate the fat, of course, but could leave the patient with unwanted scar tissue and dealing with a long recovery period. For patients who did get liposuction, it was certainly worth it, but Kybella offers an easier way to get similar results for many patients.

That said, Kybella does not work for everybody. The best way to find out whether Kybella really is a suitable choice for you is to contact a your local cosmetic or plastic surgeon and start asking questions.

How Does Kybella Work?

Once we accept that there is this wonder drug that gets rid of fat from beneath the chin, we might start to wonder how it works. That’s the next logical question, for sure. Kybella works by taking advantage of a process that already takes place inside your body: the break down of fat.

See, the in the normal human body, fat is broken down, when necessary, by a certain chemical called deoxycholic acid. Once the fat is broken down, it basically disappears in any kind of visible form (it’s reabsorbed into your body). This is how it’s supposed to happen when your body, for example, needs to break down fat for fuel.

The active ingredient in a Kybella injection is a synthetic version of this chemical. Essentially, Kybella is deoxycholic acid that’s been created by people rather than by the human body. But, chemically, it’s identical. Once Kybella is injected into the chin, it gets to work!

There are a few things to note about Kybella:

It may take several treatments in order for you to get your desired final results

Most patients are able to return to normal activities following their Kybella injections

Peak results will likely show roughly six weeks after the procedure

Kybella is currently only approved for treatment of submental fat, but some surgeons may discuss other treatment areas with patients (such as the belly). Further approvals may also be pending.

Because it’s such a novel procedure, you should always discuss your desired end results with your cosmetic surgeon.

How Does Kybella Compare to Liposuction?

Of course, the big question is, how does Kybella compare to liposuction? After all, liposuction is not necessarily a drug to get rid of chin fat, but it is a surgical solution to the double chin. That surgical solution has both benefits and drawbacks, including the following:

A surgical procedure can produce near immediate effects (those effects will be visible once recovery is complete, but the fat is gone immediately)

However, a surgical procedure does require significant recovery period; patients will generally experience discomfort, and possibly swelling and bruising after liposuction

And, of course, there are benefits and drawbacks to Kybella, including the following:

Kybella can be accomplished in just a few minutes. The injections take mere minutes

Kybella may take several weeks to show peak results

The degree to which Kybella “contours” varies, as there are natural variations in the way the deoxycholic acid performs within the body

Kybella doesn’t work for everyone, and will do nothing to mitigate excess skin

You can see why it’s difficult to compare the two. On the one hand, liposuction gets great results—but there’s significantly more discomfort and time involved. Kybella is incredibly easy, but the results will be much more subtle (though, still noticeable).

For patients who want to, there’s a great deal of incentive to try Kybella before going in for liposuction, just to see if it works. That said, if Kybella does not work, liposuction will still be an option. It really comes down to a decision between you and your surgeon.

Ultimately, those are the best kinds of decisions. Kybella, the wondrous double chin drug that can help you get rid of submental fat and achieve a more athletic looking jawline, gives patients another great option in the effort to achieve the body and the look that they’re after.

If you want to know more about Kybella, contact an authorized cosmetic surgeon who specializes in this injectable!